Ask anyone close to me. Makeup is definitely not a specialty of mine. I don’t know the first thing when it comes to what’s the best brand or how to bring out my best features. Forcing myself to look appealing and glamorous for five days at school was, to say the least, an adventure filled with mostly downs.

With only a tube of chapstick and a few mascaras tucked away in my drawer, I employed the help of my mom and the lovely humans working at the makeup counters in Neiman Marcus and at Sephora to compile all the beauty products that I would need. The list included foundation, bronzer, blush, eyeliner, eyeshadows, a few lipsticks and brushes to apply all of these products.

On the first day, I decided to wake up at the regular time of every other school day: 7:15 a.m. Figuring out what each product does was the biggest struggle in the beginning.

After applying all the makeup onto my face, I looked at my phone and it read 7:55 a.m. A whole 40 minutes that I could have spent eating breakfast, doing extra homework or chatting with my friends.

Upon arriving to school (a one-minute drive), the makeup already felt heavy and disgusting on my face. Walking through the halls, I got lots of judgmental and questioning looks from both students and faculty. I tried to keep my head down for the rest of the day as my face felt gross, and I was embarrassed.

Wearing makeup on an every-day basis is not a normal occurrence to see among students at Hockaday as confirmed by the confused stares and critical looks.

The rest of the week went in the same manner. At the end of each school day, I grabbed the makeup remover and a towel, sprinted to the bathroom immediately before soccer practice and wiped all the makeup off my face.

By the end of the week, I realized that there were no benefits from wearing makeup to school. However, there was a long list of negatives: feeling disgusting, wasting expensive products and more acne. I would definitely not recommend makeup or taking the time to look presentable because your classmates do not care and neither do the teachers.

Here are some of the best reactions of the week:

“I’m confused. Are you going somewhere?” – sophomore Mackenzie Brabham

“It’s dark.” – Director of Inclusion and Community Tresa Wilson

“Why do you look so good?” – sophomore Bailey Brand

“Why do you have makeup on? I don’t know if you’ve looked in the mirror lately, but you should.” – my brother Artem

“What’s wrong with her?” – junior Vyanka Sotelo

*stared* then laughed – sophomore Michelle Mankoff

“That’s different and new.” – Upper School math teacher Karen Sanchez

After laughing for about two minutes, “It looks really good, but why to school?” – sophomore Claire Jurgensmeyer

Commentaries are the expressed opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of The Fourcast staff, its adviser or any member of the Hockaday community.

– Maria Harrison – Asst. Perspectives Editor